Exercise Exercise

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Invitation poster (1974)

The trim-up movement was a fitness and health movement in Germany that was supported by campaigns by the German Sports Association in the 1970s and 1980s. It is considered to be the forerunner of today's fitness boom. The German Sports Association used the spelling Trimm Dich with capitalized dich , which corresponded to the spelling of the time.

history

Campaigns 1970–1986

The German Sports Association (DSB) started the exercise on March 16, 1970 with the slogan " Exercise through sport". The main initiator was Jürgen Palm , long-time director of popular sports at the DSB, who earned the nickname “father of the nation” for his commitment.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), the successor organization of the DSB, looks back on the history of the trim-up movement primarily from 1970 to 1986. During this period, the DSB carried out four multi-year campaigns that built on each other:

  • 1970–1974 motivation campaign "Exercise yourself"
  • 1975–1978 fitness campaign "A clever man trims stamina"
  • 1979–1982 game campaign "Play along - something's going on"
  • 1983–1986 health campaign "Trimming 130 - exercise is the best medicine" (with this motto a pulse of 130 / minute was recommended during endurance exercise)

With the support of politics, health insurances and the economy, the fight against obesity and increasing circulatory diseases was declared . In addition, the number of people at risk of heart attacks due to sporting activity, which has risen sharply in the affluent German society due to the “ economic miracle ” , should be reduced. The initiative was also brought to the attention of the media , for example commercials with the slogan “A clever man trims stamina” on television.

With the Olympic Games in 1972 , the fitness movement experienced a boom. 94 percent of the population and even 99 percent of all young people were familiar with the trim-up campaign. Numerous cities and municipalities jumped on the fitness wave and set up fitness trails based on the model of the Swiss Vitaparcours . Some municipalities mistakenly said that the DSB would then pay for the maintenance of the trim paths. In the 1980s there were around 1500 fitness facilities in Germany.

The keep-fit ​​spiral was part of the campaign. 100 fields were arranged in a spiral on the participation card. You could choose from a catalog of 35 sporting activities and fill in a field after each fulfillment. The sporting activities ranged from 5 minutes of continuous running or fitness training to 15 minutes of cycling or football to 60 minutes of hiking or gardening. When all 100 fields were filled in, you could send in the card and receive a certificate and a pin for a fee.

Club campaign

In the period 1987–1994, the DSB launched a fifth keep-fit ​​campaign: the club campaign "Active together - sport is the most beautiful in a club". This was intended to encourage people to join sports clubs in order to be able to combine training with a motivating community experience. At the same time, the sports clubs were asked to commit themselves to the idea of ​​“sport for everyone” and, also in their own interest, to expand their range of popular sports. An analysis from 1983 revealed that there was a lot of catching up to do: 95% of all clubs did not offer any family sport at the time, 89% did not offer mother-child gymnastics, 90% did not jog, exercise trot or cycle , 93% did not offer any play parties or play meetings. 90% no general gymnastics and no aerobics , about 95% no fun run or national competitions. The club campaign was very successful, especially in the first few years. The clubs got involved and received a large number of new members.

Further development

After the end of the keep-fit ​​campaigns, the DSB and DOSB continued to be involved with various campaigns and activities for popular sport and the fitness of the population.

In the course of new fashion sports , the fitness movement was gradually being forgotten. While jogging became modern as a popular sport, fitness trails went out of fashion. In addition, many municipalities had no money in the long run to maintain their fitness trails. Existing fitness trails have often been left to decay. However, some fitness trails survived and can still be used today.

In the years 2008 to 2010, a cooperation between the DOSB and the Alois Müller dairy brought about a revival of the keep-fit ​​movement. Under the motto “Müller moves Germany”, four German cities were equipped with new fitness trails over the three years, starting with Münster , Duisburg , Leipzig and Munich . In addition, more than 250 Trimmy kindergartens were created.

With the exception of a few fitness courses, little of the fitness exercise seems to have survived. However, the basic idea is well known in the population: endurance training and physical fitness are recommended for everyone. Fitness training is practiced more today than in the 1970s and 1980s, for example through jogging, cycling in everyday life or training in the gym . In this respect, the keep-fit ​​movement has remained successful to this day.

Trimmy

Trimmy, the mascot of the keep-fit ​​movement, today the mascot of the DOSB . Here as a cardboard display from the 1980s.

Trimmy, a friendly little man with a thumbs up, was the mascot of the DSB's trim yourself campaigns and is now the mascot of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). The original version of the mascot was drawn by Dieter Sihler, who described Trimmy as follows: “He is neither a superman nor a hero, a very average, small, slim and inconspicuous fellow.” The symbolic figure quickly achieved a popularity of around 90 in the 1970s Percent. Trimmy was supposed to encourage citizens of all ages with messages like “run again”, “swim again” and “ride your bike again” to be more active in everyday life.

The mascot was introduced on March 16, 1970. Already in the first year there were numerous black and white and colored versions of Trimmy, among other things as a runner, cyclist, hiker, as a table tennis, badminton or hockey player, with football, dumbbells or golf clubs, with swimming trunks, with flippers on their feet, on skis and on ice skates . In today's current graphic versions, which can be used by sports associations, sports clubs and DOSB partners, Trimmy as the DOSB mascot always wears the word “DOSB” on his chest.

literature

Web links

Commons : Fitness trails in Germany  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Trim up: The little man who made us legs on one day
  2. ↑ Detlef Kuhlmann : Article about Jürgen Palm germanroadraces.de, 2015
  3. ↑ a b The history of the “Trimm Dich” movement on the DOSB website
  4. ↑ TV commercial "A clever man trims stamina" YouTube video (0:50 min.)
  5. ↑ Verena Mörath: The trim campaigns of the German Sports Association for the promotion of exercise and sport in the FRG 1970 to 1994 (PDF). Publication series of the research group Public Health (research focus on work, social structure and welfare state), Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), 2005, pp. 61–65.
  6. ↑ Verena Mörath: The trim campaigns of the German Sports Association for the promotion of exercise and sport in the FRG 1970 to 1994 (PDF). Series of publications by the Public Health research group (research focus on work, social structure and welfare state), Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), 2005, pp. 65–67.
  7. ↑ New parcours trimmy.dosb.de
  8. ^ Müller: Bewegt Deutschland wuv.de, March 11, 2010.
  9. ↑ a b I'm Trimmy Official website of the DOSB
  10. ↑ Verena Mörath: The trim campaigns of the German Sports Association for the promotion of exercise and sport in the FRG 1970 to 1994 (PDF). Publication series of the research group Public Health (research focus on work, social structure and welfare state), Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), 2005, p. 29.
  11. ↑ Trimmy figures dosb.de. For the figures from 1970 see the overview at the top right.